New Rochelle’s Iona Preparatory School hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the Paul Verni Fine Arts Center expansion to be built on its 26-acre Upper School campus at 255 Wilmot Road. The 21,000 square foot facility will include a 409 seat performing arts theater.

“The expansion of the Paul Verni Fine Arts Center is one of the largest university building projects in our history,” said Brother Thomas R. Leto, President of Iona Prep. “WWe have been talking about building a theater at Iona Prep for years and it’s an exciting time, strengthening our commitment to the arts and expanding student career paths to prepare for the future.

The center is named in honor of Paul Verni, a former student of Iona Prep. He was in his final grade at school when he was diagnosed with leukemia and died a year after graduation. He was the class’s promotion major as well as an athlete and performer.

“The young man who inspired the concept of the original building, my son Paul, absolutely loved Iona (Prep),” Vito Verni, former school board member, told those gathered for the October 16 event. “Today we come to the day, which is the start to make this extension, this dream, a reality.”

The theater will have all the technical facilities necessary for musical and dramatic productions, including a full-size shop for set construction.

There will also be rehearsal and performance spaces for musicians and singers. The new building would be connected to the existing 5,000 square foot Verni building on campus.

There would be new classrooms on the first and second floors of the new performing arts center, and the building’s lobby would have large windows offering a view of a sports field and creating a new gathering space.

New footpaths would be built in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. A new gated entrance from Stratton Road will be created for use only by emergency vehicles.

Plans also include new foliage to improve scouting for neighbors who live on Stratton Road and Wilmot Road.

When the project was reviewed by the New Rochelle Town Planning Council, Ronen Wilk of Peter Gisolfi Associates, the architectural firm that designed the project, explained: and is also a huge conflict with the sporting activities that take place in the same space, there is therefore a great need for the school to have this new state-of-the-art performing arts facility.

The expansion is a direct result of the school’s $ 10 million Centennial for Excellence campaign that began in 2014 to provide facility upgrades and instructional improvements on upper and lower school campuses.

Iona Prep was established in 1916 and celebrated its 105th anniversary this year. It is a Catholic boys-only school that has a lower school serving preschool students from the age of four through eighth grade and an upper school from grade 9 through 12. In addition to including the arts in its curriculum, Iona Prep offers the Prep Actors and Stage Crew, who state, “Our goal is to entertain our audience and develop the acting and technical skills of our actors and Members of the team.”